Commodities

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright said on Tuesday that ship traffic in the Gulf and oil exports through the Strait of Hormuz are rising even as Washington and Tehran struggle to reach a deal on ending their more than three-month-old war.

Alberta is touting its abundant supply of cheap fossil fuels to entice tech companies to build data centres for the AI boom, a move that would undermine Canada’s plan to link new data centre development with clean energy expansion.

OPEC expects robust oil demand growth and is not changing its estimates, Secretary General Haitham Al Ghais said on Thursday at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum, despite the Middle East conflict and closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

Global oil inventories could hit critical levels ahead of the peak summer demand period if stock draws continue at their current pace, the head of the International Energy Agency’s oil industry and markets division said on Tuesday.

Experts say it’s anyone’s guess whether the relief Canadians have been feeling at the pumps over the past week will last into June.

British Columbia Premier David Eby says a deal for Canada to supply liquefied natural gas to Germany makes it more likely the Ksi Lisims project on the West Coast will proceed.

Saskatchewan’s helium industry has a chance to significantly benefit from the war in Iran, but federal policies are holding it back, which has become a growing point of frustration for the province.

Russia plans to stay in OPEC+ despite a decision by the United Arab Emirates to leave, the Kremlin said amid turmoil in the global energy market.

A recently published scientific study is raising fresh concerns about the long-term environmental impacts of coal mining in Western Canada, finding that pollution from a mine closed decades ago continues to contaminate fish in an Alberta lake and could threaten its future.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday sided with Michigan in ruling that the state’s lawsuit seeking to shut down a section of an aging pipeline beneath a Great Lakes channel will stay in state court.

Iran says it has reopened the Strait of Hormuz to commercial traffic, but a University of British Columbia economist says it could be a while before any calm returns to rattled global oil markets.

The world has lost over US$50 billion worth of crude oil that has not been produced since the Iran war began nearly 50 days ago and the aftershock of the crisis will be felt for months and even years to come, according to analysts and Reuters calculations.

Oil prices plunged by about 13 per cent on Friday after Iran’s foreign minister said passage for all commercial vessels through the Strait of Hormuz was open for the remaining ceasefire period and U.S. President Donald Trump said Iran has agreed to never close the strait again.

Europe has “maybe six weeks or so” of remaining jet fuel supplies, the head of the International Energy Agency said Thursday in a wide-ranging interview, warning of possible flight cancellations “soon” if oil supplies remain blocked by the Iran war.